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Author: NOVA (KINGKOTA666 [at] HOTMAIL [dot] COM) | |||
| Date: 17-Sep-09, 00:26:55 | ||||
| Gee, that sounds like a pretty typical day for me at work actually. Substitute our paychecks and/or our motiviation in place of the townspeople getting nuked and not respawning and you pretty much have it. | ||||
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Author: the.gray.fox (the [dot] gray [dot] fox [at] hotmail [dot] com) | |||
| Date: 16-Sep-09, 17:37:50 | ||||
| NOVA, if you are playing Nordock in "D&D Hardcore" difficulty, drop it to "Normal" difficulty. You can do it on the Server application. No need to reset the Server. I was in a bad situation down in the sewers of Benzor. I had to flee to the surface. Rats and beetles followed me. The guards could not stop them all, so I had to flee around town. Until I reached Galdor the Gold. The dragon activated his Fear Aura. A nearby Commoner was frightened away. Moments later, the guards attacked Galdor. The dragon butchered everyone in town. Nobody ever respawned. -fox |
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Author: the.gray.fox (the [dot] gray [dot] fox [at] hotmail [dot] com) | |||
| Date: 14-Sep-09, 20:01:24 | ||||
| Hello. ---------------------------------------- I am sure you have noticed that the description on Spell-Scrolls differs from the Spell descriptions you have in your spellbook. This can pose problems when you have to choose to buy or not a new scroll. Is the spell all there? Or did I improve it? You may not ascertain it until you actually buy and learn that spell, and get to look at its description in your spellbook. I have been working on a fix for it. It is now tested and ready. You will get it in the next release. ---------------------------------------- I have made Nordock creatures fully use the patch 1.69 AI scripts. In the process a few useless scripts got removed. You may never guess the amount of unused junk that lurks in the Module. ---------------------------------------- Nordock uses custom XP awarding. The stock Module had the code of this System spread and repeated within several scripts. This made any alteration to this system SO uncomfortable, because you had to seek out all "other" places and repeat your changes there as well. No more. I have refactored these scripts, and centralized all the XP code in 1 place. So any change to this 1 script shall be Module-wide. ---------------------------------------- In the above process, I have introduced something to help the Spellcaster Classes. You may have noticed (if you played different Classes) that NWN does not award the same amount of XP to everyone. Up to level 13 or 14 (depends), all Classes receive some extra XP for all kills done. Then, among the Classes, this "extra" varies in amount. Melee Classes receive the least help. Mage Classes receive the most help. The Classes in-between receive... something in-between. Once they reach Level 15, all Classes receive the same XP amounts. I have somewhat replicated this. But to a minor extent. Until you hit Character Level 7, you receive more XP. Melee Classes benefit no from it. Mage Classes receive the most help. Melee-Mage Classes receive help in-between. When Character Level 7 is hit, everyone receives the same XP amounts. This procedure is easy to tweak, extend, improve, or even disable. NOVA shall decide. ---------------------------------------- I believe the Mage Classes should be allowed to Rest sooner as well. They depend entirely on spells, which get recharged only by Resting. So Resting is a physiological need they have. For those who think it unfair that Mages may get to Rest more often, I can introduce some code to VANISH your weapons and armors as you use them in combat. So you may get a feel of what it means to be left without nothing to fight with, until you take a Rest. With that said, I would like to rewrite the Resting rules of Nordock. The actual situation is: With a Bedroll you may Rest every 4 Hours. Withouy, only every 24 Hours. You Rest in the wilderness --> you only recover 2 HP per Level. When you try to Rest again (before enough time has passed) you are told: * You are not tired enough. Try again in X hours * This is illogic. I believe Bedrolls would make your sleep more comfortable. When you sleep better, you sleep deeper. With a deep sleep, you have more energies to expend. And so you may have to wait _more_ to Rest again. More than what you would by Resting on the nude ground. Makes sense? Here is my idea. Without a Bedroll you may Rest every 5 Hours. With a Bedroll you may Rest every 9 hours. With a Bedroll you recover more HP per level. Without a Bedroll you recover less HP per level. In all this, I would account for the Classes you have. Mages will Rest sooner. Melee-ers will Rest later. Mages have low HP --> They can recover less HP. Melee-ers have high HP --> They must recover more HP. Also, I would make the Resting code smarter than it is now. Think about it: You Rest with a Bedroll, and you may not Rest again before 4 hours. But you drop the Bedroll... A-ha! Now wait 24 hours! Pick-up the Bedroll... 4 hours. The wait time for the _next_ Rest should not be affected by what you plan to sleep on (Bedroll or ground). Instead it should remember how "good" you last slept, and base your wait time on that. Tell me what you think. -fox |
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Author: Albadaran (simondekker [at] hotmail [dot] com) | |||
| Date: 12-Sep-09, 17:47:00 | ||||
| For the spawning problem there is another solution. I use it quite often in my mod for simular situations when I want to spawn different creatures. Simply this: In the Advanced tab of the creature, use adjustment to manually change CR. Make the CR of both creatures equal. Problem solved! |
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Author: the.gray.fox (the [dot] gray [dot] fox [at] hotmail [dot] com) | |||
| Date: 12-Sep-09, 15:49:53 | ||||
| NOVA, I am Sorry to hear of your poor cat. Animal or human, a friend is always a friend. She lived a very long life. Even this old, she enjoys every attention you can dedicate her. Videogames can wait. ---------------------------------------- As for Nordock... your adventuring will improve once you reach level 5 and access the 3rd Tier of spells. Past that, with each new Tier (every 2 Character levels) you will gain more and more powerful spells. Remember that every spell as a use in this game. Never judge them by their Tier level. Some of your best spells are, in fact, low Tier. Sorcerers have a limited spellbook, and can not afford to learn all spells. But Wizards have no limit. You find a new Arcane spell -> you can learn it (when you have the required level). ---------------------------------------- I have looked into the boatman problem. The Encounter used to spawn the 2 NPCs is at fault. You happened to awake the "flaw" that slept in it all this time. (and the same flaw may repeat in other maps where Encounters are used to spawn NPCs you need) Encounters should only be used to toss enemy creatures at Players. Because there are Rules that shall be followed. But there are also Hints that may be ignored, based on the situation. Open the "Mulrok Island" Area. It has a "mul_kab_merch" Encounter. Right-click --> Edit --> Properties the Encounter. In the "Basic" tab, you see it set to spawn Min 2 creatures, Max 2 creatures. So always 2 creatures. This is a Rule. Switch to the "Creature List" tab. There is creature "Samin" -- with CR of 0.25 And then creature "Alia" -- with CR of 0.5 Samin is the boat operator. Alia is the ticket seller. Both creatures are flagged "Unique". This is a Hint. The Unique flag means something like: << spawn what you want, I do not care. But if you spawn Uniques, use only 1 copy of each >> Both creatures in the list are "Unique", and the Encounter is set to spawn 2 creatures always. So the logic suggests that only 1 Alia and 1 Samin will appear. All wrong. If the Activator -the Player- has a CR that can not be matched with the hint-ed combo of creatures, the Encounter will go as far as to ignore the "Unique" flag, and will spawn multiple copies of the same creature (with respect to the max # of creatures) to try to match the CR of the Activator. In simpler words... As Alia has the biggest CR in the "Creature List", the Encounter has spawned all the Alia it could (2), to assemble the force with the biggest CR available: 1.0 But why it waited so much to do it? Answer is in the "Difficulty" of the Encounter. It is set to "Easy". It must provide an easy challenge to Players, and always "making do" with the creatures in its list. So you get both Alia and Samin until you become "way too strong" for them alone. Nordock slow-leveling helped this flaw to hide for longer. But NOVA became too strong, and the Encounter adapted to his CR. My logic is flawless. Multiple solutions to the problem exist. -- But only 1 is flawless: Delete the Encounter, and manually place Alia and Samin on the map. So they do not spawn anymore -- they are already there. Make them "Immortal", so that no agent may remove them from map. The same should be done for the Drow near them. -- Sub-flawless solution: Create a twin copy of the Encounter used to spawn both Alia and Samin. Make it overlap with the original Encounter (it should auto-do as you create the copy). Then, from the "Creature List" of one Encounter you delete Alia. From the other Encounter you delete Samin. Adjust the number of creatures they can spawn: Min 1, Max 1. Also double-check that the Spawn-Point of the new Encounter is placed near the one of the original Encounter. So Alia and Samin will appear close to each other. Other solutions involve the use of Triggers and scripts. Not worth the effort. Remember that the "spawning" of a creature may trigger an unfixable glitch. Sometimes a fresh-spawned creature appears without a physical body to interact with. When these are enemies, no problem: eventually you auto-war with them. But if they are NPCs you should talk to, you are stuck. I suggest you go the route of manually placing the NPCs on the map. They are in the "Custom Palette". Browse to [+]NPCs --> [+]Human, for Alia and Samin. Browse to [+]NPCs --> [+]Elves, for the Drow (Celindra Ste'tend). ---------------------------------------- Speaking of custom creatures... If you browse to the [+]Monsters --> [+]Dragons, you can find a "Dracolich". Right-click and Edit him. You can see his Appearance, Portrait and Sound Set are those of a White Dragon. In every other detail, he is built as a Level 60 Dracolich (!) (have people no sense of measure?) Unless its mismatched Appearance is part of a "plot", you may want to fix it. (open the combo, and pick the "Dracolich" entry) (do not forget the Sound Set too, in the Advanced tab) If this Dragon is spawned by an Encounter, you need to "update" the Encounter too. (remove the Dracolich, re-insert the Dracolich) Same if it is placed in a map directly. (delete him, place him again) No need to say, I suppose, but I say it anyway. Should you meet this Dracolich during play... turn around and run. Do not even think to challenge him. This thing chews Epic Heroes for breakfast. -fox |
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Author: NOVA (KINGKOTA666 [at] HOTMAIL [dot] COM) | |||
| Date: 12-Sep-09, 03:41:53 | ||||
| Ok, Nordock with the updated Fox spell system is now running. The new client files can be downloaded <a href="http://173.24.116.139/Fox-client-files-09-09-09.rar"> HERE </a> Once again, the direct connect IP for the server is: 173.24.116.139 password = NOVA I have checked and verified that summoned creatures do indeed last now. My mage is very happy about that. NOVA |
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Author: NOVA (KINGKOTA666 [at] HOTMAIL [dot] COM) | |||
| Date: 11-Sep-09, 18:18:38 | ||||
| I have Fox's updated files so I'll need to restart the server this weekend and also set the latest client files for download from my webserver. I'll try to get that done ASAP. I hope the summon spells work better now because my poor mage is just getting her arse kicked with no fodder around to take the hits. Her familiar dies in about 5 seconds and that henchman I hired dies even faster than that. I have managed to get her to level 3 but it has NOT been easy and I've done so only because I've used gold from my other characters and bought lots of expensive magic wands to use (she runs out of her normal spells after one single encounter). I spend most of the time just running away and praying the monsters don't catch me. It's hard to gain XP using that tactic. I'll post here when I have the server updated and the new client files available for download. -NOVA |
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Author: Albadaran (simondekker [at] hotmail [dot] com) | |||
| Date: 11-Sep-09, 12:37:18 | ||||
| Yup, Gray Fox is the scripting and spells king! I feel with you Nova, cats may be solitary creatures, but they are the most faithful pets I know. Even when they feel sick, they keep purring when they get attention... |
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Author: bbKing (arsnova30 [at] hotmail [dot] com) | |||
| Date: 11-Sep-09, 11:56:56 | ||||
| I didn't have the opportunity (yet) to experience the improved spell system gray fax did, but judging from all of his previous posts it undoubtedly will be logical, extensive, complete and therefore impressive. And I second all the appreciation you, NOVA, expressed. I feel very much with you now that your cat has reached the end of her/his life. I know what it feels like having to part with such a dear companion. My best wishes to you NOVA. |
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Author: NOVA (KINGKOTA666 [at] HOTMAIL [dot] COM) | |||
| Date: 10-Sep-09, 18:47:54 | ||||
| A few comments to make (I'll try to be brief, but no promises): 1. To Simon (and others), yes it is possible to add the Fox spell system to your module yourself. In the case of Nordock which I'm running, Fox was kind enough to offer to do it for me. He previously wrote very detailed instructions on how I could do it, but I am a moron and did not trust my own ability to apply the system successfully. Therefore, Fox agreed to apply it for me and also to provide detailed instructions on what (and why) he did. 2. I have noticed at least one strange event inside the Nordock module with the Foxy Spell system (though I do not know for sure if the effect is caused by the spell system or simply a coincidence). There is an encounter triggered when you first take a ship to Mulrok Island which spawns both the merchant who sells tickets and the boatman himself who transports you to other city ports. However, somehow when I entered Mulrok, two copies of the ticket merchant NPC were spawned but none of the boatman NPC. The result was I was able to buy a ticket but I got stranded on that island with (I thought) no way off other than to either die or reset the server (I chose death). I subsequently realized I could use a DM character to force a spawn of the boatman. Therefore, I removed the duplicate ticket merchant and spawned the boatman. However, this is a bandaid for whatever caused the problem. This specific problem never happened to me before but, as I say, that could mean there is a correlation to the spell system or it could just be a pure coincidence. I have not yet reset the server to see if the problem repeats or not. 3. I want to publically thank Gray Fox for his spell system and for his generous efforts to include it in the Nordock module and to share it with the rest of us. I also want to thank him for his VERY detailed and logical explanation for all the steps he took to modify and clean up the Nordock module. The effort Fox made to document and explain the process is obvious, extensive, and truly impressive. It is truly appreciated I can assure you. 4. If I seem distracted, absent, or in a bad mood in the near future I want to apologize and explain up front. I learned about a week ago that one of my cats has a very large and rapidly expanding terminal cancerous tumor. The vets can do nothing and I am therefore counting the days, hours, even minutes until she dies. I've had this cat for 18 years which represents all but a few years of my adult life. I have faced the death of pets before, but this one is hitting me particularly hard. Therefore, as I say, I apologize in advance if my behavior seems odd or abrasive in the near future. That's it for now. -NOVA |
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Author: Albadaran (simondekker [at] hotmail [dot] com) | |||
| Date: 10-Sep-09, 12:14:57 | ||||
| Hello Fox, Is it necessary to let you add your spells to a module personally? Or can we expect a way to apply them to every mod we like ourselves? |
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Author: the.gray.fox (the [dot] gray [dot] fox [at] hotmail [dot] com) | |||
| Date: 10-Sep-09, 01:51:17 | ||||
| Sorry to hear that. Maybe I am not late? I have fixed my Spells. (Check your e-mail, NOVA) Everything is now __100%__ reliable. Summons too, of course. As for my game resources, I am unsure if all Players will need them. But I imagine that their presence on Players Hard Drives should cut the amount of data to travel over the net. At worst, you download 2 tiny files your game will ignore. At best, you get better performance from the game. Worth a try. No? For a decent Wizard I will post something tomorrow. I am so strict on time right now... -fox |
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Author: Albadaran (simondekker [at] hotmail [dot] com) | |||
| Date: 08-Sep-09, 21:13:43 | ||||
| Maybe you should forget about raising a chr in that mod. Takes way too long. For testing you better use the experienced chr's from your chr. base. | ||||
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Author: NOVA (KINGKOTA666 [at] HOTMAIL [dot] COM) | |||
| Date: 08-Sep-09, 20:23:26 | ||||
| Well, I've got my mage up to level 2 now, but she dies all the damn time. It really hurts not having summons to protect you. Every creature I summon disappears in about 3-4 seconds. So other than your familiar and a useless henchman you can hire from the Benzor Guard Captain, your poor mage is flying solo and must bear the brunt of the attacks. I have no idea how to effectively use (or even choose) spells. And those run out awful damn quick (one encounter and I'm done) and then you must wait 4 simulated game hours to rest (and must have a bedroll and food to rest in Nordock) before you can fight again. Perhaps Gray Fox would be so kind as to give us all some advice on how to wisely create, level up, and play a mage character? -NOVA |
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Author: bbKing (arsnova30 [at] hotmail [dot] com) | |||
| Date: 08-Sep-09, 02:37:47 | ||||
| Same here, allthough I got to level 17 I think with a mage. Still I find it very hard to even be a decent spellcaster. | ||||
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Author: NOVA (KINGKOTA666 [at] HOTMAIL [dot] COM) | |||
| Date: 07-Sep-09, 18:47:58 | ||||
| Ok, thanks to Gray Fox, I now have Nordock with the Foxy Spell System. I neglected to ask, but none-the-less I assume, that in order to play you will need the client files (.HAK & .TLK) loaded into the appropriate sub-folders where you have your NWN game installed. Therefore, you can find those files <A HREF="http://173.24.116.139/Fox-ClientFiles.rar"> HERE </a> I am hosting Nordock with the Foxy Spell System, so come join in the fun and help me playtest this thing. I could use some expert tutelage on how to make a spellcaster, cuz I've never seriously played one before (my highest mage I think was level 4 or so on Rhun). Direct connect at IP 173.24.116.139 player password is NOVA -NOVA |
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Author: the.gray.fox (the [dot] gray [dot] fox [at] hotmail [dot] com) | |||
| Date: 05-Sep-09, 19:31:33 | ||||
| NOVA, check your e-mail. -fox |
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Author: NOVA (KINGKOTA666 [at] HOTMAIL [dot] COM) | |||
| Date: 03-Sep-09, 22:22:14 | ||||
| To Gray Fox... I hope you are going to explain everything (or at least most) of what you did. Not because I don't trust you but because I want to LEARN from you. I'd like to know: 1. What you took out of Nordock to shrink the size of it. 2. What changes you made to the ATS crafting system to make the non-compilable scripts compile properly. I had to add a "void(){}" to get one of the respawn scripts to compile and then remove it again to get an accompanying script to compile just so I could alter the death penalties. I made it work, but that doesn't mean I understand what I did....haha. 3. What sort of work-arounds you had to create so your new spell scripts would work within a large module file. With some expert tutelage I might just be able to script my way out of a wet paper bag in a year or two. -NOVA |
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Author: the.gray.fox (the [dot] gray [dot] fox [at] hotmail [dot] com) | |||
| Date: 02-Sep-09, 20:01:49 | ||||
| Hello. I have good news -- and bad news. First the good ones. I can finally conduct myself the tests I needed done online to understand if there would be problems with my Spells. Now the bad ones. I have discovered that indeed my Spells shall fail online. Do you remember that once I said? : "NWN in Server Mode shows different behaviors than in Single Player Mode"? I was not entirely correct. Indeed this "myth" is no myth. But it does not matter whether it is online or offline. Instead it is all a matter of SIZE -- of the Module. Big sized Modules are usually hosted online, in Server Mode. Mystery solved. I have culled away some unused stuff from Nordock, without breaking things. I could squeeze Nordock down to 64.3 MB Apparently this is size enough to trigger the "different" behaviors. And no matter how the Module is played. This allowed me to examine very well the behaviors I feared. I will have to perform a massive re-factoring of my scripts, to make them work around the problems. But you fear not. I have got ideas already. I only regret I did not use them from the beginning. -------------------------------------------------- In any case: In the next days I will send to NOVA a copy of the Nordock I am working on, with my Spells in. The Spells will not always work properly. But it does NOT mean you can not use them. All the contrary! To your eyes, in fact, they will behave exactly like you have always seen them do. Only exceptions are my summoning spells. They suffer major sabotage, to a point they are useless :-( Only Familiars and Animal Companion summons are still flawless. I invite you to get a feel of what it means to be a spellcaster in this game. Avoid Clerics and Druids. Most of their spells are not included in my modification yet. But Paladin, Ranger, Bard, Sorcerer and Wizard are okay. I have also fixed a number of minor problems in Nordock. And the ATS System now compiles properly. I imagine NOVA will be happy. So... my Spells or not, this Nordock is already way better than what you played so far. And while you play this, I adjust my scripts. -fox |
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Author: Albadaran (simondekker [at] hotmail [dot] com) | |||
| Date: 29-Aug-09, 18:24:03 | ||||
| I hope that it is also possible to add your spellsystem to other modules. By one standard procedure so we don't have to send every module to you for adding it ;) | ||||
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Author: the.gray.fox (the [dot] gray [dot] fox [at] hotmail [dot] com) | |||
| Date: 29-Aug-09, 18:09:58 | ||||
| Downloaded. All fine. And no worry for delay -- we all deal with Life :-) I will send it back in some days. -fox |
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Author: NOVA (KINGKOTA666 [at] HOTMAIL [dot] COM) | |||
| Date: 29-Aug-09, 16:50:33 | ||||
| Ok, finally got to it. I sent the latest version of the Nordock module which I'm running on my server. Sent it to your email address. The file is about 4.5 meg, so I hope it goes through. Sorry for the delay. Work has been hell lately and I'm just so damned tired in the evenings. NOVA |
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Author: the.gray.fox (the [dot] gray [dot] fox [at] hotmail [dot] com) | |||
| Date: 27-Aug-09, 02:19:33 | ||||
| Yes I am willing. 1. My Spells get used online. 2. I learn of their problems. 3. I fix them. 4. Everyone gets better Spells. 5. (jump to 1) Virtuous Circle. -fox |
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Author: NOVA (KINGKOTA666 [at] HOTMAIL [dot] COM) | |||
| Date: 26-Aug-09, 21:51:02 | ||||
| If you would be willing to make all the edits to include your spell system into Nordock, I would GLADLY accept that. In fact, more than gladly. You would be my hero. Of course I'd also very much like to know what you did and perhaps I can learn something in the process. I'll pack my modified Nordock module into a winRAR file and email it to you as soon as I get home from work. |
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Author: the.gray.fox (the [dot] gray [dot] fox [at] hotmail [dot] com) | |||
| Date: 26-Aug-09, 18:51:15 | ||||
| (big post again) No problem. The Epic they talk about may be a catch-line. To "hype" things. Maybe. I have investigated the pre-hook spell system of Nordock. You will find it inside: NX_SF_INCLUDE I say it is born to make the Honest Spellcaster(c) life miserable. A short summary of the features: To cast a spell you must pass a spellcraft check. Failing the check makes the spell back-fire on you, and apply some random bad effect. (like you can afford to waste your spells AND be hurt by them too...) (the Resting limitation is not enough?) The same goes for using scrolls and wands. And Rogues attempting to Use a Magic Device are no exception. As I told, spells are also instructed to fail when cast inside a No-Magic zone. From what I see, the Gateway Area is one such zone entirely. There may be more. But all evidence makes me believe the No-Magic feature is present as a bonus. The system was designed by someone that is not Nordock author. The No-Magic is one of the features in it. But its use is no mandatory. The system was later "adjusted" -to work better with Nordock- by a third person. Chances are the Gateway is the only No-Magic Area present. With that said: This systems may have nice ideas. Maybe they fit well in the Module. But the way it is written makes it VERY invasive, and with a thirst for (CPU/RAM) power. Things of this magnitude can not be coded like that. You do not fly a B-52 the way you drive a bycicle... Indeed the B-52 *may* be the cause of your Server freeze when Time Stop is cast. Another problem with it, is that it hooks inside the original NWN spells only. The spellscripts you find in Nordock are replicas of the originals. Original bugs included. One more problem. Subtle. When you modified Nordock with your Toolset, you automatically made it aware of the spells from SOU and HOTU. Now those spells will be available to the player spellcasters. They may not appear in loot drops, or when you shop. But they will show up in the spellbook of players. And be usable. Being them absent in Nordock itself (thus, not pre-hooked), the _standard_ SOU/HOTU spells will be passed to the Module. They will not obey the B-52 rules because of it. Makes sense? At this point you must choose: A) you manually import the SOU/HOTU spells in Nordock, and pre-hook them like is done for the NWN spells. At least you get a homogeneous situation. --OR-- B) you discard the whole spell system of Nordock (B-52 with it), and use my Spells in place. Again you get a homogeneous situation (bugfree too). However, if you wish to use my Spells with the Module, there is more script editing required (you are going to hate me). I discovered and fixed new bugs in my Spells the other day. One of them big enough to justify a new release. But the new release wants more manual script edits than before. Previous script edits done are valid. Just more got added. In the specific, it needs to hook inside every Area OnEnter and OnExit event scripts. Yes yes. I know it is a scary thought. But listen to me. I took the liberty to "scout ahead" and see which areas would require edits, and to which extent. All Areas do. But the amount of edits itself is limited to a few scripts (12 or so). These scripts are then shared among all Areas. It is not as bad as it sound. One last problem. Some of my Spells require special customization (from me) so they are compliant with Nordock specifics. In fact the subrace system of Nordock has interest in some of them. If I do not provide you dedicated Nordock-versions of those, my Spells will conflict. Minor conflicts, Truth be told. Now the good news: I can do much of this edits for you. You e-mail me copy of your _modified_ Nordock Module, I make the changes and send it back ready for use (along with log of what I did). And I have modified my Time Stop spell. You may select the alternate work-mode: "Stop the Area I am in". Or you may keep it: "Stop the whole Module". Let me know. -fox |
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Author: NOVA (KINGKOTA666 [at] HOTMAIL [dot] COM) | |||
| Date: 26-Aug-09, 04:55:16 | ||||
| I've never seen these NO MAGIC zones, but then again I'm not a spell caster and I have definitely not seen all of the module. Perhaps there is need of such in the module's single EPIC quest. All that I have read about Nordock claims there is a single EPIC quest against some dark evil force, but I don't know what that quest is. That's all I know so far (which isn't much). |
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Author: the.gray.fox (the [dot] gray [dot] fox [at] hotmail [dot] com) | |||
| Date: 25-Aug-09, 19:45:32 | ||||
| Hello. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- >>> NOVA <<< I have heard of some people who have modified the game scripting to limit the area of effect to at least no more than the screen the caster is on. However, they never explained HOW they did it nor have I seen independent confirmation that their claims of having modified the spell behavior were successful. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The HOW? -- Haha. That is so easy you would not believe it. But a "fake" of Time Stop will be far from flawless. There is only 1 Time Stop, and is totally hard-coded. You want to change it -> you must write a fake. But no fake can mimic the original. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- >>> NOVA <<< I agree. I always hated the Time Stop spell for that very reason. The Drow Matrons in the Rhun module used to use it extensively. Everyone playing no matter where they were had to endure repeated game stoppage if someone was down in the Underdark fighting the Drow Matrons. Very very friggin annoying. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- And I disagree. What annoyed you was not the _pause_ of the Time Stop. It was its "friggin" _abuse_ instead. If you got paused once in a while, you would not care of it. Would you? But if everyone and their pet can Stop you... it is annoying alright. The spell does its job. The MODDER is to blame. He is the idiot who annoys you. When modders abuse of cool features, they are cool no more. The solution is only 1: Remove Time Stop from the ability list of every monster. Make sure only the Elite _spellcasters_ can use it. Among players too, only the spellcasters must be able to use it. Absolutely no item must exist to cast Time Stop. Not even as reward for an Epic Tough Quest. There, the PERFECT solution. But of course it is faster to write a Fake Stop. People always want the fast solution. It costs the least effort... it will lead to more prolems, but who cares? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- >>> NOVA <<< I don't know why there seems to be this bug in the Nordock module. Once the Druergar Mage (or maybe it was a cleric, I can't recall now) invokes the Time Stop, it locks the module in Time Stop mode forever (it literally never comes out). The whole module is locked up and no one can play until the server is either reset or a DM character enters the server and manually forces the Time Stop spell to end (which is how I fixed it both times this has happened so far). -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I downloaded Nordock 1.70 It is untold in the readme, but Nordock uses its own set of spells. This is a problem. If you use my Spells, they will conflict. To start, what reason (or necessity) made Nordock author want his own spells, shall be ignored by _my_ Spells. What if the reason is important? I have read in the scripts something about No-Magic zones. That is, places in which no spell is supposed to work. But the scripts do not tell HOW these zones are employed in actual game. And it does not tell why there is need of No-Magic zones. So... from a player point of view, what can you tell me of these zones? By the way. Nordock Time Stop is fine. If this is the spell freezing your Server, the problem is elsewhere. If I am correct, it roots in the custom system that pre-hooks inside all Nordock spells. (this system does a lot of things before the spell "fires") As Nordock spells appear to be a replica of the original ones, this pre-hooking in them may be the ONLY reason for having those replicas. So if this pre-hook system is indeed screwing the Module, using my Spells would solve the problem. But the No-Magic zones (whatever they are supposed to do) would not work with my Spells. Let me know. -fox |
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Author: NOVA (KINGKOTA666 [at] HOTMAIL [dot] COM) | |||
| Date: 25-Aug-09, 00:43:56 | ||||
| I agree. I always hated the Time Stop spell for that very reason. The Drow Matrons in the Rhun module used to use it extensively. Everyone playing no matter where they were had to endure repeated game stoppage if someone was down in the Underdark fighting the Drow Matrons. Very very friggin annoying. I have heard of some people who have modified the game scripting to limit the area of effect to at least no more than the screen the caster is on. However, they never explained HOW they did it nor have I seen independent confirmation that their claims of having modified the spell behavior were successful. I don't know why there seems to be this bug in the Nordock module. Once the Druergar Mage (or maybe it was a cleric, I can't recall now) invokes the Time Stop, it locks the module in Time Stop mode forever (it literally never comes out). The whole module is locked up and no one can play until the server is either reset or a DM character enters the server and manually forces the Time Stop spell to end (which is how I fixed it both times this has happened so far). I hope I can sort out why so that I can generate a fix for whatever is wrong. Until then, hopefully not too many people will be entering that section of the Underdark while I'm away from the computer and thus cannot fix it. -NOVA |
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Author: Albadaran (simondekker [at] hotmail [dot] com) | |||
| Date: 24-Aug-09, 21:33:57 | ||||
| Although I do see the logic of stopping the time for everyone, I also see the logic for the opposite: NOT to stop time for everyone, but only for 1 map. No sorcerer should ever be so powerful to stop time for the whole world, or universe. It would probably not matter in a rpg environment where the npc does not respawn once killed. But with respawning creatures the spell would freeze gameplay way to often for other players. | ||||
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Author: the.gray.fox (the [dot] gray [dot] fox [at] hotmail [dot] com) | |||
| Date: 24-Aug-09, 16:29:04 | ||||
| I checked my Time Stop. I correct myself: If caster is a NPC, he stops the Time for 1 round. If the NPC possesses the feat Epic_Spell_Focus_(Transmutation), the stop upgrades to 2 rounds. Like before, Time shall freeze world-wide for everyone. All Players will be notified of the Name of who is stopping Time. But the message will not tell where the stopper is located. -fox |
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Author: the.gray.fox (the [dot] gray [dot] fox [at] hotmail [dot] com) | |||
| Date: 23-Aug-09, 18:07:12 | ||||
| My Time Stop will freeze the world for everyone, for a limited Time. If I remember good, I placed a safety to prevent its abuse by the AI. NPC casters are limited to 1d2 Rounds (either a 6, or a 12 seconds Stop). Player spellcasters have no limit. Their spell shall behave like the Description says. ---------- I like your Aura idea. But your goal involves more than scripting. Auras are very difficult to work with. Because Auras have a hallway of pitfalls in store for the unaware. I fell prey of each of them. So very displeasing. But I am fox. I sat on the pit floor, and pawed my tools to evade. You will need those tools. Of course, the very NWN stock Auras are all victim of those pitfalls. Very careful obervation of the stock Auras will reveal the problems. Problems never solved in 69 patches... Here is my offer: You think to your Aura. Draft all the mechanics you want in it, in great detail. I make the Aura for you, and use it as example to illustrate the steps to follow to make more custom Auras by yourself. I also give you the tools required, of course. There are 1 liberty and 1 limitation in this process. The liberty is that your Aura can do almost-anything-and-quasi-beyond, so start up your imagination. The limitation is that the visual Circle of it will be set to 4 Meters Radius. -fox |
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Author: NOVA (KINGKOTA666 [at] HOTMAIL [dot] COM) | |||
| Date: 23-Aug-09, 16:14:22 | ||||
| Two more verfications for Nordock mods: -(VERIFIED) Argyle RTG updated to restrict players being so choosy. If you don't like the quests he's offering and choose to decline them so you can restart the conversation and pick a better random quest, you now have to wait 8 game hours before he will offer you any more quests. -(VERIFIED) Fakualt Crypt secret door transition to hidden room. This secret door now takes you to the correct location. Lord Atton discovered another flaw. One quest asks you to go to the Mist Inn on Fakualt Island. The Inn exists, but someone forgot (or never completed) the concept because the doorway INTO the Inn does not exist anywhere. The internal contents of the Inn are also all messed up (an obvious copy/paste of another Inn which never got edited properly). I'll have to sort out my own details on how to complete the Inn and how to finish that quest. Thank you Lord Atton for reporting that one. Last night I ran into a problem again which I encountered about 2 weeks ago. Back then I thougth it was a fluke one-time event. Looks like it's no fluke...it is a repeating bug. Deep in the Underdark there is a Druergar Dwarven Lair. When you enter one particular room as a non-Druergar character, you get attacked. So far no problem. But there is a mage in there that uses Time Stop which stops EVERYONE including the casting mage and including the entire module. It locks in that state and stays TIME STOPPED forever and ever. The only two ways to end the time stop are to restart the server or enter with a DM character and force an end to the time stop manually. I don't know yet how to cure this problem, but I'll keep investigating. Apologies to anyone who was denied access to play because of the Time Stop event (stuck the module for about 8 hours). Maybe Fox's spell alterations will fix the problem. -NOVA |
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Author: NOVA (KINGKOTA666 [at] HOTMAIL [dot] COM) | |||
| Date: 23-Aug-09, 15:57:06 | ||||
| OK, stupid ass Microsoft is forcing a computer reset due to a windows update. Therefore, I'm going to have to restart the goddam server after I reboot. Sorry for the hassle. Send your bitchy emails to Bill Gates c/o Microsoft Corp. -NOVA |
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Author: NOVA (KINGKOTA666 [at] HOTMAIL [dot] COM) | |||
| Date: 22-Aug-09, 00:00:28 | ||||
| This is probably best addressed to Gray Fox, but anyone else please feel free to answer it. I'd like to create gear which has an aura effect similar to dragons and the more powerful undead (that ring of effect around the monster). How would you suggest I go about accomplishing such a thing? I'm thinking for example of having: an area effect of cold damage which may or may not impact the wearer as well, or of fear, or of holiness (thus automatic undead turning at a given cleric level). I don't know how to create the aura effect in the first place plus I'm worried about how to make it permanent (something that won't go away when you log off and log back on). Muchas Gracias. -NOVA |
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Author: NOVA (KINGKOTA666 [at] HOTMAIL [dot] COM) | |||
| Date: 21-Aug-09, 20:01:27 | ||||
| Ok, my ISP changed my IP address on me (which is why the server suddenly stopped working following a recent storm). New IP is 173.24.116.139 Sorry. -NOVA |
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Author: NOVA (KINGKOTA666 [at] HOTMAIL [dot] COM) | |||
| Date: 21-Aug-09, 18:16:04 | ||||
| The most minor of updates humanly possible.... I have verified in-game that two of the previously unverified patches are indeed patched successfully: - Rockfall script updated to allow reflex saves (VERIFIED) - Enabled page changing of the public in-game bulletin board and DM removal of posts. (VERIFIED) That's it. |
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Author: NOVA (KINGKOTA666 [at] HOTMAIL [dot] COM) | |||
| Date: 11-Aug-09, 23:00:36 | ||||
| Very informative (as usual) and very much appreciated I can assure you. Your insights into the behind-the-scenes workings and mechanics of the NWN game is extensive and very helpful. I must confess I know virtually nothing about them. I also must confess I know very little about spellcasters nor their plight within the game mechanics. I tend to play melee characters so my views are slanted in that direction. My concerns at the moment for Nordock center around the fact that the entire module seems to have been designed around a few assumptions: 1. many many players acting in cooperation (organized into parties) 2. desire to slow character advancement drastically so that play lasts for many many months 3. Occasional (if not frequent) participation by a DM who proctors and directs the adventures and actions of the players. 4. The module was created pre-expansion packs thus levels 16-20 are considered EPIC and most of the game material from those expansions (or anything else really) which came out after mid-2002 is not factored into Nordock at all. I've been playing Nordock for about a month now (and it works out to quite a few hours on a per-day average) and I am only just now a level 17 fighter. 5. Heavy heavy reliance upon the ATS Tradeskill Crafting system (which was only in Beta mode at the time of Nordock's public release). 6. Nordock was never completed (nor was ATS crafting system for that matter). Both were released "AS IS" to be tweaked and completed by anyone who wished to use them. Some of the things I do not like about Nordock are: A. The ATS crafting system is far too laborious and if you opt to dabble in it, you really wind up spending 90% or more of your adventuring time focused upon that to the exclusion of all else. So there's really no such thing as dabbling in the system. And the rewards for your efforts are dubious at best owing to the disorganized and incomplete nature of the system. B. Solo (or even small group) play is very very difficult and the penalty for death was very very harsh before I toned it down a bit (which is in keeping with the spirit of the pen and paper D&D game). C. Despite their claims to the contrary, there are in fact VERY few quests available in Nordock. Character advancement pretty much comes down to farming those areas and encounters which you CAN defeat over and over and over again slowly building XP (levels) and hoping for lucky random loot drops. D. As with Rhun, the reported CR (Challenge Rating) of monsters tends to be HIGHLY misleading. But loot rewards and XP rewards are none-the-less calculated upon this basis, so you are well advised to find difficult CR rated encounters if you want to improve your odds of getting decent random loot. Despite all that, I am glad I dabbled with Nordock. It represents a vast departure from most of the other PW modules I'm familiar with. Nordock is a bit of a mess (granted), but it also has some very cool features and ideas (even if they were never completed). One thing you can definitely say about Nordock. If you've built a high level character, you have definitely earned your levels. The monsters are tough, the penalties for failure are severe, and the rewards for success are very small. -NOVA |
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Author: the.gray.fox (the [dot] gray [dot] fox [at] hotmail [dot] com) | |||
| Date: 11-Aug-09, 14:16:37 | ||||
| Hello NOVA. Rebalance the module, if there is need :-) -- Less immunities available (from items) to melee characters. -- Less saving throws on monsters. The saving throws are truly what screw up the life of the Honest Spellcaster(c). I can demonstrate. The absolute maximum Ability score a player character can get is: 50. Produces a Modifier of (50 - 10) / 2 = [b]20[/b]. (open... Note that to have an Ability of 50, you must start with 18 points at character creation. Then add all 10 ability points you get in 40 levels. Then add the 10 points from the Epic Great Stuff feats you may get during level-ups. Then add +12 as max bonus from equipment. And total is 50, but to get to it you must make a _very_ dedicated build, which will have several weak points because of it. Most unlikely to happen. ... closed) Spell DC formula used in NWN is: [i]Spell_DC = A + ((B - 10) / 2) + C + (2 * D) + E[/i] Where: A = always equal to 10. B = the Relevant Ability score of the caster (Intelligence for Wizard, Charisma for Sorcerers...) C = the spell Innate Level (see the spell description, this number can range from 0 to 9) D = the amount of Spell Focus feats you possess in the Spell School of the spell being cast (can range from 0 to 3, and 0 is the most likely value that always applies). E = special internal scripted +bonus (or -penalty) applied to the final DC (this is VERY RARELY used, set to 0 in 99.99% of cases) If we substitute the A, B, C and D terms with their maximum values, we have: [i]Max_Spell_DC = 10 + ((50 - 10) / 2) + 9 + (2 * 3) = [b]45[/b][/i] I repeat, this 45 DC is obtained only if the spellcaster has got an ability score of 50, and casts a level 9 spell, and has got all 3 Spell Focus feats for that specific spell school. (Again, most unlikely to happen) My best kick-butt Wizard(40) got an Intelligence of 44, and only Greater Spell Focus in 2 schools (of the 8 available). Best DC she can output is: [i]10 + ((44 - 10) / 2) + 9 + (2 * 2) = [b]40[/b][/i]. More often I used spells who produced a DC from 31 to 37. But Wizards are the "exception to the rule". A Sorcerer hardly can match that power, because he pays a bitter price if he wants to focus entirely on Charisma. So, for all non-Wizard spellcasters, drop that [31 - 37 DC] to a more likely [26 - 34 DC] range. Anyway only Wizard and Sorcerer classes need this special care. Clerics, Druids, Paladins and Bards are not as dependant on spells. With all this said, if your monsters possess a Saving Throw of 35 they will surely survive most spells cast at them. And if they possess Saving Throws of 45... they will surely survive ALL spells cast at them. Do not forget that the Saving throws are added to a 1d20. Thus, a monster only needs a Save of 26 or 28 to have _HIGH_ chances to survive. I hope this is helpful to you. -fox |
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Author: NOVA (KINGKOTA666 [at] HOTMAIL [dot] COM) | |||
| Date: 10-Aug-09, 16:38:40 | ||||
| Update on the craftable EPIC gear set in Nordock... The entire set is complete as well as the in-game recipe items that give instructions on how to craft each of them. It's 11 items in total. Now I just have to complete 11 mini quests (one for each recipe item), create a player reward script for each one, and modify the final ingredient conversation so it is conditional on having completed one of the previous 11 quests rather than automatically rewarding the final ingredient all the time. Of course I also have to create the 11 NPCs that issue those 11 mini-quests and create the conversation structures for each one. But all the gear and the necessary ingredient items are 100% complete. It will also mean I have to reset the server at some point to bring up the modified module file. I'll try to hold off doing that until I get all the mini-quests completed. But I may get too eager to playtest in order to be sure those last few crafting scripts are working properly. I know for certain 8 out of the 11 are. The other 3 I have not yet confirmed in-game. I'm hoping to have this totally done by the end of this week, but don't hold me to that. Once this EPIC set is finally done, I'm not sure where to go next. Suggestions? -NOVA |
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Author: NOVA (KINGKOTA666 [at] HOTMAIL [dot] COM) | |||
| Date: 03-Aug-09, 18:44:33 | ||||
| I'm about halfway through adding in a pseudo quest for getting craftable EPIC level gear (that's EPIC as defined for Nordock, so basically appropriate for characters level 16-20). I had a bit of trouble getting a scripted effect to work the way I wanted, so I'm going to have to come up with a second-best alternative and script that instead. Six out of a planned ten (possibly eleven) planned craftable items are already made and in the module. I may have to tweak their final form and perhaps tweak the ingredients needed to craft them as the rest of the pseudo-quest takes shape, but at least the skeleton for those items is already made. Now even once this is complete, it leaves a giant chasm between noob character and this craftable EPIC gear. Plus it's just one single set of gear (primarily intended for warrior-based characters). Nordock needs a bunch more gear in between and for all the playable character classes. If anyone has suggestions, I'd like to hear them. -NOVA |
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Author: NOVA (KINGKOTA666 [at] HOTMAIL [dot] COM) | |||
| Date: 28-Jul-09, 21:22:32 | ||||
| Further minor update: I have managed to add several new crafted item recipes to the ATS TradeSkill system. I have tested the updated module and verified that you CAN in fact make these new items (if you have the required skill level(s) and the required materials). I am therefore going to start adding more craftable recipes to the system. I'm taking suggestions (though no guarantees). So send me (or post here) what items you would like to see. Be as specific as you can (what the item should look like, what the powers should be, etc) and I'll try to work them into the TradeSkill system somewhere. Since no such list apparently exists, I'm going to try cataloging ALL of the craftable items currently in the ATS system. I pretty much have to do this anyway because I have to know what Item Tags are already taken and which ones are not. Every new item I make HAS to have a UNIQUE item tag and item ResRef ID. I believe there are several thousand craftable items already in the system, so this may take me a while to complete. I may also be insane and in need of psychiatric care by then. I've made it through the weapons list and I'm now about halfway through the armors. I'm at just about 1000 items so far and my fingers are sore (that's a LOT of typing and a LOT of jumping screens between Excel and the Aurora Toolset). Also, since Nordock uses their own custom treasure tables, I have NO CLUE how to modify or even see what's in the existing tables. If anyone is gung-ho enough to examine and figure that out I would very much appreciate if you shared that knowledge with me. I'd love to customize the random loot treasure tables, but currently I can't. You can download the Nordock public release v1.70 at the NWN-Vault. If in doubt, just Google it. That's it for now. -NOVA |
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Author: NOVA (KINGKOTA666 [at] HOTMAIL [dot] COM) | |||
| Date: 25-Jul-09, 22:26:19 | ||||
| List of updates thus far to the Nordock module running on NOVA's NWN Server. Some have been VERIFIED as working correctly, the rest are changed but pending verification inside the game: 1. (VERIFIED)Changed the XP loss cost when self-respawning at the Fugue Plane Guardian. Previously it was 10% of your current XP total. It is now just 3% of your XP total (still painful, but at least not totally crippling). Try not to die because it is STILL costly and you can still lose a level of you lose too much XP. 2. (VERIFIED) Changed the amount of gold donation required by the Church of Light Priest when attempting to remove the Soul Fragment given by the Fugue Plane Guardian as payment for self-respawn. Until this Soul Fragment is removed, XP gain will be SEVERELY restricted. The old forumla used to be: gold = HD * HD * HD * 25 (for character levels 1-10) gold = HD * HD * 250 (for character levels 11+) The new formula for gold donation cost is: gold = HD * HD * HD * 4 (for character levels 1-10) gold = HD * HD * 40 (for character levels 11+) It's still expensive, but it should not totally wipe out your character's finances. 3. (NOT verified) Included the updates from Nordock_PR170update1. These are: - ATS Tailor & El'lar dSSrinssggrig merchants pricing brought into line with other ATS merchants. - Argyle RTG updated to restrict players being so choosy - Benzor boat captain fixed to take people to Trondor again. - UMD script altered to replace scroll with item in some messages. - Rockfall script updated to allow reflex saves - Walk waypoints fixed to overcome NWN1.30 changes. Credit to Jasperre for the script posted on BW forum. - Familiars will no longer acquire tradeskill journals if summoned in the gateway. - Fakualt Crypt secret door transition to hidden room 4. (NOT verified)Included updates from Nordock_PR170bugfix2. These include: - Enabled page changing of the public in-game bulletin board and DM removal of posts. - Removed an exploit where several merchants would still pay for items which the player dropped from their inventory and could pick up again (and thus keep re-selling forever). - Fixed a problem with the player housing Forge not working properly - added support for several SoU and HotU spells - several miscellaneous script fixes NOTE that the SpellTracker portion of this update was unable to be included as it apparently contains a filenaming error. 5. (VERIFIED)I attempted to modify the scripting for mining of ORE and GEMS to allow for continuous mining. This failed to work because something inside the code is interrupting and canceling the player's ATTACK mode. I believe it is the subroutine which checks if the player skill is such that mining of this type has become TRIVIAL and therefore the player is no longer eligible for SKILL LEVEL gains. Therefore, until a better solution can be found, I have opted to at least speed the gameplay action up by removing the automated player action to pick up mined items. Instead, all mined ORE or GEMs simply accumulate at the player's feet (remember to pick up what you want). You still have to keep re-initiating an attack on the ORE vein, but at least you no longer have to wait until you pick up the item before you can attack the vein again. 6. (VERIFIED) There was a script error whereby rest inside an INN (which does not require a bedroll, is not restricted for how often resting occurs, and heals the player FULLY) would erroneously add a bedroll to the player's inventory. This bedroll is no longer added to the player inventory. That's it so far. -NOVA |
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Author: NOVA (KINGKOTA666 [at] HOTMAIL [dot] COM) | |||
| Date: 22-Jul-09, 01:52:31 | ||||
| A thousand apologies to anyone affected, but it appears my server went down some time today. I have reset, but this means all the junk on the ground is GONE as are any/all map notes you made ingame. Once again, I lost all mine too. The server is back up and running again though. And look at the bright side, with all the junk on the ground gone....the lag should be reduced....haha. -NOVA |
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Author: NOVA (KINGKOTA666 [at] HOTMAIL [dot] COM) | |||
| Date: 21-Jul-09, 18:55:40 | ||||
| Ok, after about 2.5 weeks messing around in the public-release Nordock module, I have finally got my fighter to level 13. I have found a few nice items (the rings of power are a MAJOR boost because they have +1 regen on them...almost no need to use heal potions now). I've found both entrances (unless there are more) to the Underdark. The first is to the Drow subrace start location. I got no further than the entrance here because all the city/town NPCs just kicked my ass. I killed ONE of them after a LOT of effort and got a +3 full plate armor as a prize. The other is the Druergar start location. Here I got quite a ways in before I met some nasty dudes that I could not kill. I got a +3 cloak of protection for killing one of the tough dudes here. The ATS tradeskill system sadly appears to have been released MicroSoft fashion....in other words utterly incomplete and virtually untested. And its implementation into Nordock is even pre-release I think. There are entire sections of the Tradeskills which are not even scripted or are COMMENTED out of the script because they are not finished. The gear you can make is about 99% garbage (sadly). It's a mess to sort out. The scripting is complicated as shit and there are about 5000+ custom craftable items which all require code in multiple locations for even ONE item to work properly in-game. I doubt I will ever be able to sort this system out satisfactorally. Though it's kinda cool to mess with, I think your best bet is to concentrate your efforts on just playing Nordock without building your Trade Skills, but that's just my observation so far. Building these skills has cost me most of my gold (gold that could have been much better spent buying heal and buff potions, which are expensive as hell). I did manage to kill a very very weak dragon solo. That was mostly cuz he did not use fear or knockdown attacks. It still took me a long time to kill him. I got nothing but a vial of dragon blood as a reward. The REAL dragons are still impossible for me solo...but I'm working on a plan to take them on. Despite its problems (all modules have those) and despite its old age (it was made with only base NWN game thus max char level of 20) Nordock is still very rewarding and fun to play. I encourage all of you to join in and play. And of course forward your bug reports and improvement suggestions (or post them here). See you in the game. -NOVA |
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Author: NOVA (KINGKOTA666 [at] HOTMAIL [dot] COM) | |||
| Date: 15-Jul-09, 20:39:25 | ||||
| The Tradeskill Crafting System is not a necessary part of the Nordock module, it is optional. You can play Nordock perfectly fine without learning any crafting skills at all. In fact, this will save you a LOT of time because I can tell you from personal experience it's a LOT of work building those skills. After a week and a half playing Nordock, building my skills took about 75% of my play time and a LOT of my gold. And so far I have only produced two items better than what I've found as random loot or bought in shops....and both of those items are just barely better. Seems to have been a huge waste of my time as far as profit margin goes, but it has been a hell of a lot of fun and it has forced me to explore a lot more of Nordock than I would have otherwise. FYI...the loot you get does not appear to improve much against the higher ranked monsters either. The only thing that does get better is your XP reward. In fact, you eventually get ZERO xp for monsters which are I think 6 levels below you and lower. If you plan to keep gaining new levels (and doing so at faster pace than getting 2 xp per kill) then you will have to venture out into the harder monster lairs. It's hard to gain the 8000 xp you need for the next level 2 xp at a time. I seem to be averaging about 15-25 xp per kill when I'm challenged by the foes. The crafting system in Nordock requires you to gather all sorts of materials to perform your crafts. And you need special tools to gather/harvest those materials. This is the message you are getting when it says "you don't have the right tool" when you click on the bear's carcass. You are not being robbed of loot. The "monster" you killed was a deer or a bat or a bear or a cougar. When was the last time you saw one of those carrying around a pouch of money or a longsword ?? They have nothing for you to loot (apart from the xp you get from the act of killing it). Instead you have the option to harvest their flesh for meat or their hides as animal pelts which can be crafted into something (but you need the special skinning knife to harvest them). Believe me, you will need a LOT of food in Nordock. You have to have food to rest. And buying food get's expensive and you are often far from a town where you can buy it. Instead, carry a few flasks of oil and a few skinner's knives (all your crafting harvest tools eventually break with use and must be replaced, of course with blacksmithing skill you can make your own tools for free if you have some raw ORE). You can start a campfire with the oil flask and then cook the meat you harvested into meals. It's an endless supply of food out in the wild so you can keep on resting and never have to go back to a town (at least not for a long time). As to the shops and what they offer, the gear is balanced quite well for most of the challenges you face (you'll simply have to trust me on this). Keep in mind this module was written in 2002 and as such is pre- both expansion packs. Nordock was written when level 20 was the maximum character level attainable. The skills and feats your character gains with each gained level are what allows you to defeat the more challenging encounters. You do NOT need better gear. In fact, the gear you have is ALMOST irrelevant. I'm still using mostly the same gear I bought or found when my character was level 1 (I'm level 11 now) and I'm having no more challenges with the monsters of this calibre than I did when I was still 1st level. Your wits, technique, strategy, patience, and your character's skills are the only tools you need to advance in Nordock. Of course money helps, but there's much less to spend your money on in Nordock than in most modules (heal potions are a MAJOR help, but they are VERY expensive). Most of my gold has been spent buying supplies to craft with (that and buying my Soul Fragment back when I die, which I have done far too often). Even now that I've drastically lowered the death penalties, they are still quite painful. Each death sets me back about 3-4 hours of gameplay (would be at least 24 hours with original penalties in place). The lesson remains.... do NOT die if you can avoid it. And you're going to be disappointed if you think the shops in the higher towns/cities get better. They don't. The gear for sale is the same in EVERY shop in EVERY town/city (at least the ones I've seen). I believe I found the access point to an EPIC shop in one spot, but you must be level 16 or higher to enter (at least that's what the sign said). I've no idea what gear might be for sale there. I hope to make level 16 and find out eventually. In the meantime, I hold out hope that eventually some of the gear I can craft will be better than what I already have, otherwise I've spent a lot of effort for no better gear. We'll see. And if you are frustrated at 1st level, believe me it get's easier once you reach about level 3-4. There seems to be a bit of a challenge hurdle at those early levels which presumably was offset by being in a party. Once you have performed a few choice quests, you can also hire a henchmen (or woman) who does not necessarily help out a whole lot, but does make a pretty good meat shield to take some of the hits so you don't have to. The expense to hire them rises with your own level, so hire them early. They stay in your employ until you release them or hire a replacement. They even come back from the dead for free (after a bit of a delay). Have faith. The module is really rather fun. I'm on the look out for easy improvements that could be made (hard improvements are beyond my ability). But most of this module is really well done as far as I can see so far. Hope to see ya back in the game. -NOVA |
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Author: Albadaran (simondekker [at] hotmail [dot] com) | |||
| Date: 13-Jul-09, 00:07:19 | ||||
| Lol, no one? For Nordock I have a small request. Seems the module is build to let players create their own gear by gathering all kinds of stuff. And the proper monsters don't just drop their salvagable loot but you need special items to farm them. Well no. Not good! Please offer an alternative: A good shop where we can buy decent stuff. And make monsters like bears etc. just drop their stuff without the need of special knives, hammers or whatever to loot them. And please: some nice random loot. It should at least drop better stuff than singleplayer imo. |
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Author: Albadaran (simondekker [at] hotmail [dot] com) | |||
| Date: 12-Jul-09, 14:38:02 | ||||
| Hmm, I have a different proposal: Spend 30 bucks and buy one of the Guild Wars campains (preferably Nightfall or Prophecies)* and the expansionset: Eye of the north. We could be online this afternoon! *But absolutely NOT Factions. |
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Author: Lord Atton (cosmclord [at] yahoo [dot] com) | |||
| Date: 12-Jul-09, 12:33:17 | ||||
| Well done Nova, For single play Nordock left us out in the cold. Ridiclous penalities. Lack of good sense. Just to make a super hard module that you could never level to 40 is in my opinion BS. I do like the layout of the module. My chr is still an enfant. But with those mods I should do better. Just been working alot. See you in the server soon. Lord Atton |
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Author: NOVA (KINGKOTA666 [at] HOTMAIL [dot] COM) | |||
| Date: 12-Jul-09, 03:08:35 | ||||
| NOVA's NWN Server IP 12.215.125.182 Module = Nordock release 1.70 player password = NOVA With my module alterations, HotU and SoU expansions are now necessary to join Nordock on my server. Previously you did not need those expansions to play. The necessity was automatically included by the Aurora Engine, nothing I could do to stop that except re-install NWN pre-expansions to make edits, then re-install expansions afterward. Anyway..... I have still not given up on Nordock. Yes it is a VERY tough module (especially when compared to most of the others out there), but it's also very rewarding when you succeed at something. I't meant to be played as a PW with a LOT of players online at once and working together in well-balanced parties (mages, rogues, fighters, clerics, all represented). As such, some of the penalties in the game are a bit harsh to say the least when you are essentially played solo. The penalties for dying are a prime example. But despite those penalties, I've still managed to get to level 9 in just a week of play (and that's with dying at least 6 times, 4 of those deaths each cost me a full character level). Had I not died those four times, I'd be at least level 11 by now. Anyway... Because the death penalty is a multiple of your current XP (10% to be exact, which means the higher your current XP the more you lose) and because the cost to remove the Soul Fragment is exponentially a factor of your character level (the cost rises to the cubed power of your character level), I have institituted the following alterations to Nordock on my server: 1. Death penalty XP loss now lowered to 3% of your current XP total (was 10%) 2. Donation cost to merge your Soul Fragment back into your soul (a cost you must pay if you release yourself from the Death Plane) is now about 1/6 th of what it used to be. Up to level 10 it is your level cubed times 4. So at level 10 that would be 10x10x10x4 = 4000 gp. Starting at level 11, the cost is your level squared times 40. This way it still increases geometrically with your level, but it's now much much lower than it used to be. 3. The keys to the public storage chests on Mulrok Island are now permenant. You only have to buy ONE key (which is transferrable) and you can open/close your storage chest as often as you desire. You used to have to purchase a new key each time you wanted to open your storage chest. That's it for the changes so far. Death still bites you hard, but it should not cripple your character. Also, because of the changes, I was forced to restart the server, so the module itself is wiped clean of all the junk I had stored on the ground (the very public place I had been using as my storage space). All characters retain what they had before, but any notes you made on your map are also wiped out (sorry, I had most of my notes on there too and will have to make them all again). While we wait for Jult's ROM3 and wait for Simon to officially open Allods at the end of summer, come play Nordock. I could use the help and I could certainly use some more playtesters to identify and suggest alterations to the module to make it better. See you in the game. -NOVA |
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